Former Vandals standouts try to win over scouts at pro day: ‘Waiting for a phone call’

MOSCOW, Idaho – For athletes in their early 20s, in most cases, playing football since grade school when their helmeted heads looked like an apple on a pencil, the opportunity to continue their craft as professionals comes down to this:

What kind of numbers can you post in a weight room, on a field and against a tape measure and a scale?

The University of Idaho hosted its annual pro day Monday. Eight former Vandals sought to catch the eye of representatives from the National Football League’s Seahawks, Bears, Cardinals, Broncos, Packers and the British Columbia Lions of the Canadian Football League.

“You train 10 weeks for two-and-a-half hours,” defensive lineman Zach Krotzer said, a Shadle Park High School graduate, who stands 6-foot-2, 270-pounds.

The recent Vandals were adequate to marginally undersized. The numbers they put up would not blow any scouts away, but most players posted a performance in at least one of the drills that would force scouts to acknowledge “this guy deserves a look.”

The fastest 40-yard dash came from defensive back Deuce Blenman, 5-9, 190 pounds, at 4.58 seconds. Offensive lineman Nate Azzopardi, 6-3, 296, got 28 reps on the bench press. Blenman and running back Elijah Cummings, 5-8, 188, launched themselves to 34-inch vertical leaps, and Blenman topped the standing long jump at 10-4. Isaiah King, light for a linebacker at 6-3, 215, but about right-sized for a safety, owned the L drill at 7.09 seconds and ran a 4.75 40-yard dash.

Other notable efforts came from 6-5, 263-pound defensive end Maurice Heims, who ran a 4.83 40 and a 7.21 L drill. Azzopardi’s 4.99 40 also seemed eye-catching for someone nearly 300 pounds.

The eight players took various routes to their pro day. Blenman, Heims, defensive end Don Parham, 6-3, 230, and long snapper Zander Echols, 5-11, 220 all returned to Moscow after training at other venues. Krotzer, Azzopardi, King and Cummings chose to remain in Moscow and train under the tutelage of UI strength and conditioning coach Jamel Cooper. None regretted the decision.

“We had good numbers, for sure,” King said. “I trust Coach Coop. He knew how to get us right.”

Krotzer agreed. “Coach Coop got us so right. I feel like I showed out. I did everything I could to make them like me.”

“Now it’s just waiting for a phone call,” King said of the unfolding draft process.

Cummings tweaked a hamstring a week ago and opted out of running the 40, which might have been his best event. On balance, though, he felt good about the day.

“I was really excited to go through this process,” he said. Training with teammates in Moscow “was a fun three months. It was a good journey.”

Azzopardi amplified Cummings’ remarks.

“We put a lot of work in. Car pooling with these guys every day, eating with them, spending time together for 10 weeks. That’s really why you train at your school,” he said.

“That’s why you stay four or five years, to build relationships.”